Winning the competition: discover 3 key factors for your Business

Purple-colored checkmate in the center of some white-colored pawns

How can we win the competition and increase sales? Discover 3 key factors: decision, determination and Leadership!

I start from a parallel with F1 to talk about 3 factors that I think are decisive in business.

Monday morning 02:30 a.m.
The Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix dominated by Ferrari has just ended.
1st Sebastian Vettel, 2nd Charles Leclerc.

As the great Ferrarista that I am, you can imagine my joy, my emotional charge.

Last night I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I had friends over for dinner and was cheering like a child.

Aside from the sports result, last night, unlike so many other times when I saw Ferrari win, I felt something different, but I couldn’t figure out what.
I figured it out tonight, at 2:30 precisely, when I woke up.

In a moment I reviewed the last years of Ferrari.
I Team Principle Domenicali, Arrivabene and Binotto.
I Pilots Alonso, Räikkönen, Vettel and Leclerc.

This year was supposed to be the breakthrough year but the first 10 races seemed to indicate anything but.
Then we won the last 3 grand prix and last night we triumphed with a one-two punch.
Yesterday I felt like I was back in the Schumacher era.

I asked myself. Why?
What brought about the change?
What has made and is making a difference?
Why did we return to winning?

Winning the competition: factors of success and failure

It is a time when I am constantly analyzing my success and failure factors.

I try to figure out, constantly, where I can and need to improve.
In Formula One as in Business, the competition is incredible.

And this competition is becoming fiercer every day. The volumes of goods in different markets tend to remain constant, but competitors are springing up like mushrooms.

Some markets, instead of growing and expanding (look at the automotive market, for example) have contracted and seen the entry of dozens of new manufacturers.

What is the magic formula for success?

How can I win over my competitors?

Why did Vettel lead Ferrari back to victory last night?

Vettel had not won for 1 year and his teammate had already won two grand prix and strung twice as many pole positions.

What has changed?

I think this can be summed up in 3 crucial factors.

Winning the Competition: Decision, Determination and Leadership

Not of the individual but of the whole team.

For more than a year I have been writing about my experience with OSM, Open Source Management.

A company that supports entrepreneurs in personal and professional growth.

For the past year or so, I have been participating in OSM’s MBS Mind Business School courses.

Each month, two days of training and speeches conducted by speakers and entrepreneurs who explain how they have achieved success.

What was their magic formula?

The three key words: decision, determination and leadership, are a constant in their speeches.

Believe me, in this year of training I had understood its meaning and value.

I understood how these three elements were triggers and determinants of a company’s success.

Yesterday, during the Singapore Grand Prix, I saw its real power.

I am not the Team Principal of Ferrari, so I don’t have the opportunity and the luck to talk to the drivers.

What I report now is a personal analysis, dictated by the hundreds of articles I have read and the great passion I have for the “redhead.”

To differentiate yourself from the competition: decisiveness and determination

Yesterday Sebastian Vettel did not wish to win. Yesterday the Seb decided to win.

There is a huge difference between wanting something and deciding to have it.

The moment you decide to have something, you decide to take on all the risks and duties to achieve the goal.

Yesterday Seb drove like he hadn’t in so many grands prix.
He decided to win, so he took his single-seater to the limit in every corner.
He built his lead over Leclerc, inch by inch.

That’s what I told myself tonight, at 02:30, when I opened my eyes.
That’s what I have to do if I want to make a difference for my clients and potential clients.
If I want my Agency to be different from others.

What I felt, decision and determination, led me to get up, turn on the computer and write this article.
Of course I had it clear in my mind, I could have decided to write it at a more suitable time, but it would not have been the same.
I am convinced that it would not have had the same energy and determination.

Something must be done…when it must be done. Carpe diem. Seize the moment.

Above all, I would have come across as having little credibility, first of all to myself.

I am determined to win. I am determined to win. I’m willing to make any sacrifice, but I’m under the covers and I’ll write the article later.
Naaaaa not working.

And I must say it was a great joy, because zero effort. It’s writing itself.

Leadership

This is the second important point to win in the market.
If we look at Ferrari in the last 3 years, it always had all the potential in the barrel.
Money, designers, great mechanics, great drivers, yet something wasn’t turning in the right direction.

Leadership was missing.

Unfortunately, I was never able to speak with Mattia Binotto current Team Principal Ferrari or Maurizio Arrivabene, previous TP of the team.

So I cannot comment on the actual approach to the team.

I tried to consider two opposite, different cases.
One Team Principal working on psychological pressure. So basically the results came by stressing the Team.
The other Team Principal working on team making, that is, supporting the Team. So the results come by spurring the Team.

To understand the value of these two different approaches, I brought them back to the everyday, to what happens in companies every day.

I imagined two different briefs with a company’s sales force.

In the first case, the Sales Manager who leverages pressure, the fear of losing the job.
The salespeople who do not meet the target will lose the Bonus and the one with the lowest performance, will be fired because the company cannot afford it.

What can trigger such a strategy?

That the first competitor you have to beat is your own colleague in your company.

You don’t worry about what your competitors’ salespeople will do. No you are not measured against them.
You must measure yourself against your colleague.

Your job depends on it, so lock ethics and fairness in a drawer and prepare to win the war with any weapon.
You have a family to feed at home. You cannot afford to lose your bonus, much less your job.

This results in a gloomy atmosphere in the group; everyone thinks for himself. The company will have great difficulty in winning in the market.

In the second case, the Commercial Director makes a team.
He says that only with everyone’s contribution is it possible to win.

That it is important for a salesperson to do a great job, but it is even more important for them to work together with their colleagues to seize, together, all the opportunities in the market.

In this case, since it is the group that wins, I will be willing to share business info with my colleagues.
Inform them of open negotiations in areas that are not my responsibility.

Make myself available to help them achieve their personal goal because, only by teaming up can we win.

This company will definitely win over competitors.
They have a common goal. They know how to team up and support each other.

Those who row against the group, the individualists, are automatically excluded from the games.

The example we saw contrasts the behavior of a person who wants to be Leader, basing his power on blackmail with the one who is Leader naturally.

Who takes on the problems of his colleagues. Who leads a team to victory, for the simple reason that he sets the right example.

Being a Leader means taking on, first and foremost, the burden and duty of behaving as a Leader.

Again, it is crucial to decide to keep our determination high to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.

Getting up every morning at 5 a.m. and finishing work late at night is not a chore, because you are not doing it because you have to but simply because it is your mission.

If you want to achieve your goal, you have to be willing to do every lap to the maximum. Never conceding anything to your opponent.

Do we want to make our Companies or Activities attractive?

It is crucial to invest in people; they are the ones who make the difference.

It is the people who make the difference. This is the essence of the success of a Company or Business.

They are the differentiator, which is why it is crucial to invest in people.

It is the people behind a business enterprise that determine the measure of success it will enjoy. Change their personalities so that they are more pleasant and more attractive to customers and the business will begin to thrive.
Excerpted from the book “The Laws for Success” by Napoleon Hill.

We do not buy products or services, we buy feelings. The feelings that that product or service conveys to us: confidence, leadership, sensuality, warmth, joy, love, respect, understanding… these are all feelings and they are crucial during the buying phase.

For this reason in a Company, as in a Restaurant or Gymnasium, it is essential that the staff is always well-disposed and interested in all those who cross the threshold.

It is not the décor that makes an establishment, but the people who stand behind the counter, or wait tables.

People buy as much personality as commodity, and it is not yet clear whether they are more influenced by the personality of those they come in contact with or whether they are influenced by the commodity.
Taken from the book “The Laws for Success” by Napoleon Hill.

Let’s take the world of food & beverage as an example: restaurants, pizzerias, sandwich shops, piadinerias, bars etc…

It is a world I know extremely well.

Both in terms of the work aspect, as my agency, Factory Communication, has followed more than 50 outlets over time.

Both in terms of user experience. For work and personal enjoyment, I lunch and dine out at least 6/7 times a week.

Let’s say that in the personal budget, the restaurant and related items hold an important slice.

I have found myself dining in “old-fashioned” trattorias with old-fashioned decor. Mind you, not antiques, but simply old and almost disused. And I’m not talking about those trattorias where you have lunch for 10 euros and can eat first course, second course, side dish, water, wine and coffee.

I am talking about trattorias where the average receipt is definitely high and yet always crowded. In order to have lunch, you have to make reservations a few days in advance.

Of course the food is good, but if you look closely, people are not there for the food, but for how they feel.

How many times you must have thought: here I feel like home.

On the contrary, I have crossed the threshold of Ristornati, Lounge Bars, Bistros as it were… cool, yet I found them deserted.

You try to understand why and discover that feeling of feeling out of place. That you are not fully accepted.

Then you read reviews like this one.

Reviews measure how well your restaurant is liked

Winning the competition is never just a matter of price

We start with a quote from John by Julius to express an important concept.

“Customers today want either the absolute best that is on the market or the expensive one, the sector in between no longer exists.”

So you have to decide where to position your Company or business, but know that regardless of whether you decide to position yourself in the high segment or the low segment, the competition will still be strong and you will have to find your differentiator.

In the premium segment, i.e., that composed of Companies that sell high-end products, this may be easier, as the margins are significantly higher.

In the lower-middle sector, emerging in the Market and distancing the competition turns out to be significantly more complicated.

To stay in the restaurant business, Giropizza is a practical example.

If you do an online search, or simply, try a few, you will see that the price is basically aligned. Variations in cost are in the range of 50 cents or 1 euro.

Yet some pizza rounds are always full and others are deserted.

Winning the competition with a great customer experience

Those who can stand out win. That is, for the same cost they offer the best experience for the Customer.

A person, because let’s always remember, we call them Customers, but first and foremost they are people, even if they have reduced economic capacity or a low propensity to spend, will always be willing to spend even a few extra euros to go to that restaurant or pizzeria where they feel important, pampered, the center of attention.

Where, in essence, it does not represent merely a receipt to beat at the end of the night.

How many times have you had a less-than-excellent lunch–let’s say sufficient. The waiter was so nice to you that, in the end, you left a positive review of the service, omitting to say that the food was not that great.

We can summarize this concept with a beautiful quote by Maya Angelou.

I learned that people may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

To win the competition in your Company, people need to be happy

For this reason, whenever I deal with an Entrepreneur who heads a Company, no matter how big or small, before making Marketing or Communication strategy, I try to understand how the Company is experienced by its people.

Those who work with and for him every day.

One symptomatic element is how he defines them: my employees, or my collaborators.

This is an important index. If you see people as “dependent” it means they are dependent on you. So they are unlikely to be pro-active and cooperative. The state of dependence is never good.

If you see people as collaborators, it means that they too can make an objective and personal contribution to the growth of the Company.

They will be stimulated to find new solutions, to solve problems. Because they feel part of something big.

They share the Entrepreneur’s dream.

It is an unstoppable emotional and energetic charge. They enable one to achieve goals that seem unattainable.

The only way to do this is to put the person at the center. Whether it is a co-worker or a client.

If you share this thought, but do not know how to approach the problem, I recommend that you start a path with OSM, Open Source Management.

I started a year ago, and my life, both professional and personal, has changed dramatically.

Below are links to some articles that I think are extremely important and interesting.

Take five minutes. Read them and if you like, leave a comment on this article.

If you want to learn more about my thinking, I invite you to read this page “Spiritual Business“.

Have a great day.

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Winning the competition: Discover 3 key factors